Sweet Cherry Pizza

We haven't thrown a pizza recipe at you in quite some time. And with harvest time (read: autumn) approaching, now is a great time to gather up the last of the summer fruits and make the best of them.

And when we say make the best of something, we generally mean, "make pizza with them".

So, today, we would like to encourage you to gather the last of the cherries and make a sweet Marinated Cherry, Farmer's Cheese and Mint Pizza.

Why should you do this? Well, if you know us, you know we love pizza. And you know we would never give you faulty advice (knowingly) about it. This pizza is different, delicious, and delightfully balanced. It's true!

This is a fantastic brunch pizza, dessert pie or even a warm-up appetizer cut into bite-sized pieces and served along with a nice prosecco. Actually, I would prefer a rosé, but I like pink (and so does John).

Here's how it goes:

What You Need

1 cup cherries, halved and pitted

1 cup sweet wine

(I used Chateau Piada Sauternes. It has honey, orange, apricot and pineapple flavors that work well with the cherries)

1 cup Farmer’s Cheese

Honey (as much as you like)

Fresh mint, chopped (as much as you like)

What You Do:

1. Marinate your cherry halves in the sweet wine overnight. Keep them in the fridge.

2. Stretch out your pizza dough into a round and spread a layer of the farmer’s cheese onto the dough.

3. Top the cheese with the marinated cherries.

4. Drizzle with honey.

5. Bake in the oven at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes.

6. When it is finished cooking, remove the pizza from the oven and drizzle with a little bit more honey and sprinkle with mint.

Need a reminder on how to make the dough? Have at it:

Pizza dough recipe

*You can also buy pre-made pizza dough at your grocery store.

* NOTE: For this recipe, I substituted 1 cup of all purpose flour for 1 cup of millet flour. Millet is slightly sweet, and makes for a nice dessert pizza crust).

Yields 4-5 pizza rounds

Ingredients:

1 envelope active dried yeast

1 ½ cups warm water – 100 degrees F

3 cups flour (all purpose, bread, or 00 flour)

1 cup millet or almond flour

¾ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

Tools:

Pizza stone and pizza peel, semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting

If you don’t have a peel or a pizza stone, you can also use a cookie sheet. If you are using a cookie sheet, it’s not necessary to use semolina flour or cornmeal. Just place your dough round directly onto the cookie sheet and add toppings.

Process:

1. In a medium mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in 1 cup of the warm water.

2. Stir in ½ cup of the all-purpose flour.

3. Cover with a kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and let stand for 30 minutes to let the mixture bubble and rise.

4. After the 30 minutes are up, pour the yeast mixture into the bowl of a food processor or stand mixer. You can mix by hand as well in a large bowl.

5. Add the remaining ½ cup of warm water, salt and the olive oil to the food processor.

6. Slowly begin to add the remaining flour, ½ cup at a time.

7. The dough will start to hold together and form into a ball.

8. When this happens, remove the dough from the bowl, and place on a floured counter top.

9. Knead the dough until it is smooth. This may take about 10 minutes.

10. Dust the dough lightly all over with flour and place in a large bowl, covered with a kitchen towel.

11. Let it rise for 1 hour.

12. After an hour, the dough will be doubled in size. Punch it down in the center and divide the dough into four or five equal parts.

13. Form each part into a smooth ball and let them rise, covered, on a floured surface for 30 minutes.

Before you top your pizza, heat your oven to 500 degrees F. If you are using a pizza stone, place the stone in the oven and heat it up for at least 30 minutes prior to baking on it.

When the time comes to top your pizza, begin by stretching out your ball of dough on a floured surface. Start in the middle of the dough, and press outward until you have a flat, round disc, about 10-12 inches in diameter.

Side note: Neapolitan pizza is characterized by a thin crust with a slightly puffy outer crust, or “cornicone.” Feel free to stretch out your dough as much as you feel you can handle, but watch out for tears in the dough.

Take out your pizza peel and dust it with semolina flour or cornmeal.

Place your stretched dough onto the dusted peel. Make sure that you can easily slide the dough around on the peel.